In earlier centuries art primarily served the representational needs of the court, nobility and clergy, but from the middle of the 19th century there was a significant change in the Danube monarchy: art became an important area of ​​state cultural policy. It was used to profile the state's prestige externally and to strengthen internal cohesion. This was achieved by promoting cultural and artistic diversity, which reached its peak in the Ringstrasse culture and in the fin de siècle. The aim was not to promote certain art movements, but to create a general artistic flowering that would lead to the development of a diverse Austrian style and identification with the common state.